1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ceramic heater having a heating element formed on a ceramic substrate (hereinafter simply referred to as a substrate), and more particularly, it relates to a ceramic heater usefully applied to an electric or electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, ceramics having an excellent insulation property and a high degree of freedom in design of a heater circuit is applied to various types of heater substrates. In particular, an alumina sintered body, having high mechanical strength among ceramic materials with thermal conductivity reaching 30 W/mxc2x7K, relatively excellent in thermal conductivity and thermal shock resistance and obtained at a low cost, is widely employed. When the alumina sintered body is applied to a A substrate, however, the substrate cannot follow abrupt temperature change of a heating element and may be broken due to a thermal shock.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 4-324276 (1992) discloses a ceramic heater employing aluminum nitride having thermal conductivity of at least 160 W/mxc2x7K. A substrate having such a degree of thermal conductivity is not broken by abrupt temperature change dissimilarly to the substrate of alumina. This gazette describes that the uniform heating property of the overall heater can be secured by stacking about four layers of aluminum nitride and forming heating elements having different shapes on the respective layers while locating an electrode substantially at the center of the substrate for uniformizing temperature distribution in the ceramic heater.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 9-197861 (1997) discloses employment of aluminum nitride for a substrate of a heater for a fixing device. According to this prior art, a substrate having thermal conductivity of at least 50 W/mxc2x7K, preferably at least 200 W/mxc2x7K can be obtained by setting the mean particle diameter of aluminum nitride particles to not more than 6.0 xcexcm, optimizing combination of sintering agents and performing sintering at a temperature of not more than 1800xc2x0 C., preferably not more than 1700xc2x0 C. This gazette describes that the substrate having excellent thermal conductivity is employed for the heater for a fixing device thereby efficiently transferring heat of a heating element to paper or toner and improving a fixing rate.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-95583 (1999) discloses the use of silicon nitride for a substrate of a heater for a fixing device. This prior art reduces the thickness of the substrate itself by employing silicon nitride having a relatively high strength with a flexural strength of 490 to 980 N/mm2 and a thermal conductivity of at least 40 W/mxc2x7K, preferably at least 80 W/mxc2x7K, and reducing the heat capacity thereof, thereby reducing the power consumption. This gazette describes that silicon nitride has a lower thermal conductivity than aluminum nitride and hence the heat of a heating element is not readily transmitted to a connector of a current feeding part and oxidation of an electrode of the heating element can be prevented for avoiding a contact failure.
When thermal conductivity of a substrate is increased, the quantity of diffusion to parts other than a heating part is also increased although heat propagation efficiency from a heating element is improved, to consequently increase power consumption. In order to prevent oxidation of a contact between an electrode of the heating element and a connector of a feeding part, therefore, it is effective that a uniform heating property around the substrate is excellent and a temperature around the electrode of the heating element is lower by at least several % than that of the heating element region.
An object of the present invention is to provide a ceramic heater having an increased mechanical strength of a substrate and an improved thermal shock resistance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a ceramic heater capable of controlling the thermal conductivity of a substrate and reducing the steepness of a temperature gradient from a heating element to an electrode thereby preventing oxidation of a contact between the electrode of the heating element and a connector of a current feeding part.
In a ceramic heater according to the present invention, a ceramic substrate provided with an electrode and a heating element on its surface is formed in a shape satisfying A/Bxe2x89xa720 assuming that A represents the distance from a contact between the heating element and the electrode to an end of the substrate closer to the electrode and B represents the thickness of the substrate, and the thermal conductivity of the substrate is adjusted to 30 to 80 W/mxc2x7K.
The main component forming the substrate is aluminum nitride, silicon nitride or silicon carbide, and a subsidiary component having thermal conductivity of not more than 50 W/mxc2x7K is added thereto.
If the main component of the ceramic is aluminum nitride, 5 to 100 parts by weight of aluminum oxide, 1 to 20 parts by weight of silicon and/or a silicon compound in terms of silicon dioxide or 5 to 100 parts by weight of zirconium and/or a zirconium compound in terms of zirconium oxide is added to 100 parts by weight of aluminum nitride, in order to adjust thermal conductivity thereof.
In order to obtain a ceramic sintered body having high mechanical strength, 1 to 10 parts by weight of an alkaline earth element and/or a rare earth element of the periodic table is introduced as a sintering agent with respect to 100 parts by weight of aluminum nitride. Calcium (Ca) is preferably selected as the alkaline earth element of the periodic table, while neodymium (Nd) or ytterbium (Yb) are preferably selected as the rare earth element of the periodic table.
The material for the substrate of the ceramic heater according to the present invention is preferably mainly composed of aluminum nitride (AlN), silicon nitride (Si3N4) or silicon carbide (SiC). While a substrate having thermal conductivity exceeding 100 W/mxc2x7K can be obtained by sintering material powder of such ceramic with addition of not more than several % of a proper sintering agent, the thermal conductivity of the substrate can be reduced to 30 to 80 W/mxc2x7K by adding a subsidiary component having thermal conductivity of not more than 50 W/mxc2x7K to the material powder.
If the thermal conductivity of the substrate is less than 30 W/mxc2x7K, there is a high possibility that the substrate itself is unpreferably broken by a thermal shock due to abrupt temperature increase of the heating element as energized. If the thermal conductivity of the substrate exceeds 80 W/mxc2x7K, the heat of the heating element is propagated to the overall substrate to unpreferably increase the quantity of diffusion to parts other than a heating part while also increasing power consumption, although a uniform heating property is excellent.
When adding aluminum oxide (Al2O3) to aluminum nitride (AlN), it is preferable to add 5 to 100 parts by weight of the former with respect to 100 parts by weight of the latter. The added aluminum oxide solidly dissolves oxygen in aluminum nitride in the sintered body thereby reducing the thermal conductivity while aluminum oxide having thermal conductivity of about 20 W/mxc2x7K itself is present in a grain boundary phase of aluminum nitride to effectively reduce the thermal conductivity of the ceramic sintered body. If the content of aluminum oxide is less than 5 parts by weight, the thermal conductivity may exceed 80 W/mxc2x7K. If the content of aluminum oxide exceeds 100 parts by weight, aluminum nitride reacts with aluminum oxide to form aluminum oxynitride. This substance has extremely low thermal conductivity, and hence the thermal conductivity of the overall substrate may be less than 30 W/mxc2x7K in this case.
Silicon and/or a silicon compound can be added to aluminum nitride (AlN) for adjusting the thermal conductivity. Silicon dioxide (SiO2), silicon nitride (Si3N4) or silicon carbide (SiC) may be employed as the added silicon compound. Such a substance is present in a grain boundary phase in the sintered body, and serves as a thermal barrier phase inhibiting thermal conduction between aluminum nitride particles. Such silicon and/or a silicon compound is preferably added by 1 to 20 parts by weight in terms of silicon dioxide (SiO2) with respect to 100 parts by weight of aluminum nitride. If the content of silicon and/or a silicon compound is less than 1 part by weight, the thermal barrier effect of silicon tends to be insufficient and hence the thermal conductivity may exceed 80 W/mxc2x7K. If the content of silicon and/or a silicon compound exceeds 20 parts by weight, the thermal conductivity tends to be less than 30 W/mxc2x7K.
Zirconium and/or a zirconium compound can be added to aluminum nitride (AlN) for adjusting the thermal conductivity. A typical example is zirconium oxide (ZrO2). This substance is present in a grain boundary phase in the sintered body and serves as a thermal barrier phase inhibiting thermal conduction between aluminum nitride particles. 5 to 100 parts by weight of zirconium oxide is preferably added with respect to 100 parts by weight of aluminum nitride. If the content of zirconium oxide is less than 5 parts by weight, the thermal barrier effect of zirconium tends to be insufficient and hence the thermal conductivity may exceed 80 W/mxc2x7K. If the content of zirconium exceeds 100 parts by weight, the thermal conductivity tends to be less than 30 W/mxc2x7K.
Titanium oxide, vanadium oxide, manganese oxide or magnesium oxide can also be added as another subsidiary component, in order to reduce the thermal conductivity of aluminum nitride. 15 to 30 parts by weight of titanium oxide, 5 to 20 parts by weight of vanadium oxide, 5 to 10 parts by weight of manganese oxide or 5 to 15 parts by weight of magnesium oxide is preferably added with respect to 100 parts by weight of aluminum nitride.
Also when the ceramic is mainly composed of silicon nitride (Si3N4), aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, vanadium oxide, manganese oxide or magnesium oxide can be added for adjusting thermal conductivity. 2 to 20 parts by weight of aluminum oxide, 5 to 20 parts by weight of zirconium oxide, 10 to 30 parts by weight of titanium oxide, 5 to 20 parts by weight of vanadium oxide, 5 to 10 parts by weight of manganese oxide or 10 to 20 parts of magnesium oxide is preferably added with respect to 100 parts by weight of silicon nitride.
When the ceramic is mainly composed of silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, titanium oxide, vanadium oxide, manganese oxide or magnesium oxide can be added for adjusting thermal conductivity. 10 to 40 parts by weight of aluminum oxide, 5 to 20 parts by weight of zirconium oxide, 15 to 30 parts by weight of titanium oxide, 10 to 25 parts by weight of vanadium oxide, 2 to 10 parts by weight of manganese oxide or 5 to 15 parts of magnesium oxide is preferably added with respect to 100 parts by weight of silicon carbide.
When the main component is prepared from aluminum nitride (AlN) in the present invention, at least 1 part by weight of an alkaline earth element and/or a rare earth element of the periodic table is preferably introduced as a sintering agent with respect to 100 parts by weight of material powder of the main component, in order to obtain a dense sintered body. The alkaline earth element of the periodic table is preferably calcium (Ca), while the rare earth element of the periodic table is preferably neodymium (Nd) or ytterbium (Yb). Sintering can be performed at a relatively low temperature by adding such element(s), for reducing the sintering cost.
According to the present invention, the sintering body may be prepared by a well-known method. For example, an organic solvent, a binder etc. may be added to a prescribed quantity of material powder for preparing a slurry through a mixing step in a ball mill, forming the slurry into a sheet of a prescribed thickness by the doctor blade method, cutting the sheet into a prescribed size/shape, degreasing the cut sheet in the atmosphere or in nitrogen, and thereafter sintering the sheet in a non-oxidizing atmosphere.
The slurry can be formed through general means such as pressing or extrusion molding. In order to prepare the heater, the heating element can be formed in a prescribed pattern by sintering a layer of a high melting point metal consisting of tungsten or molybdenum on the sintered body by a technique such as screen printing in a non-oxidizing atmosphere. The electrode serving as a feeding part for the heating element can also be simultaneously formed by screen-printing the same on the sintered body. In this case, however, degreasing must be performed in a non-oxidizing atmosphere of nitrogen or the like in order to prevent oxidation of a metallized layer. Further, Ag or Agxe2x80x94Pd can be employed as the heating element. While Examples of the present invention are described with reference to ceramic heaters for soldering irons, the present invention is not restricted to this application.
In the ceramic heater according to the present invention, the thermal conductivity of the substrate is adjusted to 30 to 80 W/mxc2x7K and the relation between the distance A from the contact between the heating element and the electrode on the substrate to the end of the substrate closer to the electrode and the thickness B of the substrate is set to satisfy A/Bxe2x89xa720, thereby increasing mechanical strength of the substrate, improving thermal shock resistance, relaxing or reducing a temperature gradient from the heating element to the electrode, inhibiting oxidation of the contact of the electrode part and preventing a contact failure.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.